A horse which singlehandedly brought both sides of the M62 to a standstill when it leapt into the motorway from a field has had to be put down.

Student Olivia Wynn took this amazing picture from the passenger seat of the car she was driving back from a day trip in York in with her mum, Deborah just by junction 27 near Birstall.

All lanes were affected for almost one hour when the dare devil animal hurtled through a fence near junction 28 in Tingley and attempted to travel the wrong way along the east-bound side at 5.05pm.

The animal then jumped over the central reservation into the west bound lane and ran at least three miles up the motorway to Birstall.

Sadly the horse had to be put down after suffering severe damage to its leg while running free down the motorway.

The incident comes just over a week after a deer had to be destroyed after it was struck on the M62 at junction 23.

West Yorkshire Police said: “The horse was contained in a field at around 6pm but unfortunately due to injuries and the trauma of the incident the horse had to be put down.”

Olivia, 20, who is studying American studies at Sussex University, was on her iPhone looking at social media websites when she looked up and saw the horse galloping down the road.

She said: “We were just sat crawling along the road. It was a slow journey. Then we looked up and saw one of those animal warning signs on the motorway - beware animals on the road.

“I said to my mum ‘I have never seen an animal on the motorway’ and seconds later she my mum lets out a yelp. I thought there had been a car crash. I looked up and I saw this horse. It was coming full force at us. Then I just snapped and got the picture.

“We were in the outside lane. I was just praying it didn’t hit the car and injure itself. It missed us by a few feet.

“Afterwards we were just really worried that it might have got hurt because we didn’t know what had happened to it.”

In a Twitter alert, West Yorkshire Police Road Policing Unit, who were called to the scene following calls from several bewildered motorists, said that it was ‘running all over the place’ and warned drivers to be careful.

Today the Highways Agency are now trying to arrange for repairs to be made to the fence.

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